Tips for All Riders
Cycling in the New River Valley
In the early days of the club, the NRVBA published a book of local rides with the assistance of Pocahontas Press, Inc. With permission, the routes and cue sheets have been scanned and are available as a single Adobe PDF.
- Cycling in the New River Valley (PDF, 11MB)
Commuters
When finding the best route to work, take into consideration traffic patterns and volume, location of bike lanes and trails, and topography. The safest route is not always the fastest route. You can use the following sources to help you identify possible routes. Remember, though, it’s always best to test your route out ahead of time and figure out how long you need to make the commute comfortably without rushing.
The Ride Solutions Interactive Bike Map includes both traditional and non-traditional bicycle accommodations in the Roanoke and New River Valleys, concentrating on those most useful for bicycle commuters. You can find bike lanes or suggestions for alternative routes, or you can better plan your route to take advantage of the streets and facilities with which you are most comfortable and best fit your skills as a rider. You can contribute info as well, so if you know where a bike rack is, find it’s longitude and latitude with http://www.getlatlon.com/ and post it.
Commuting Links
Mountain Bikers
NRVBA is a one of over 750 bike clubs worldwide that are members of the International Mountain Bicycling Association. The work of local bike clubs is essential in keeping trails open for mountain biking.
Rides
Six Hours of Dirty Dawg is a 6-hour endurance race at Mountain Lake in July. Riders will try to complete as many laps as possible before the bell tolls six. For those of you who have yet to experience the trails at Mountain Lake, you are in for a good surprise. Nearly all the trails are above 4000′ with waist-high ferns and old growth Hemlocks towering above. The summer time temperature is nearly 10 degrees cooler than Blacksburg and the nights remain cool. It is truly a summer time hide out.
The first Rowdy Dawg mountain bike race was run in 1988 and has improved each year in October. A longstanding tradition in Southwest Virginia, the Rowdy Dawg is renowned for its excellent and GRUELING race course and typically draws a large and diverse field of participants.
Volunteer
We all love our local trails and would like to have even more. The good news is that we can! Our trails, whether they are in the National Forest or private land, are maintained by volunteers. There are just too many miles of trail for our friends at the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to take care of, so we need to lend a hand. We always need volunteers and the efforts below are just the beginning. Trail work is a constant battle and the more time we put in, the better our current trails will be plus greater opportunities for new trails. We will keep you posted of volunteer days and we hope to see you out on the trails!